tradition means A part of culture that is passed from person to person or generation to generation, possibly differing in detail from family to family, such as the way to celebrate holidays. It carries an Arena rating of 1719, earned across 11 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, tradition ranks #1,611 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,727 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #4,244 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #4,987 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
tradition is pronounced /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ən/.
Why “tradition” is a great word
A belief, custom, or practice handed down from one generation to another. From Middle English *tradicioun*, from Old French *tradicion*, from Latin *trāditiō* ("a handing over, delivery, tradition"), from the verb *trādō* ("to hand over, deliver"). Unlike "custom," which may be recent and localized, or "innovation," which breaks with the past, tradition is the deliberate preservation of weight across distance. It is the grandmother's hands shaping the same dough her grandmother shaped, the specific lilt of a ballad sung in a dialect no one speaks anymore, and the worn path to a village church that outlasted both the village and the faith. It is the fragile, persistent thread by which the dead hold the living.
Etymology
From Middle English tradicioun, from Old French tradicion, from Latin trāditiō, from the verb trādō. Doublet of treason.
noun
- A part of culture that is passed from person to person or generation to generation, possibly differing in detail from family to family, such as the way to celebrate holidays.e.g.“After breakfast, Charles Macdoodle told Lady Mary that it was a tradition in the family that those rumbling carriages on the terrace betokened death.” — 1850, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Tree:
- A commonly held system.e.g.“They followed the tradition of lighting candles for special occasions.”
- An established or distinctive style or methode.g.“Following tradition, the victorious athlete runs a lap around the track.”
- The act of delivering into the hands of another; delivery.e.g.“A deed takes effect only from this tradition or delivery; for, if the date be false or impossible, the delivery ascertains the time of it.” — 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
- The entirety of a text's transmission; all the versions of a work.
verb
- To transmit by way of tradition; to hand down.e.g.“The following story is […] traditioned with very much credit amongst our English Catholics.” — 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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